IGN Oscar Bait, Monster Hunter on Vita and Persona 3 woes.

So it's close to midnight on a Sunday evening and as I've managed to run out of literally everything else to do (up to and including toying with a statue of Anubis) I thought I'd try and write something. Unfortunately I don't know what that is just yet so I'll try and make something up as I go along.

Hmmm... after little thought, I'm just gonna talk about some random subjects for a bit and then we can all go home. Sound good? Excellent.

1. IGN Oscar bait, it's a thing!

If you frequent the blogs section of IGN at all regularly you may notice articles that seem out of place somehow. You can't quite put your finger on it, but something about them unsettles you. They just seem... different.

A few hours later you're back on the front page and low and behold, one of those articles has taken pride and place on the front page!

The King's Speech of IGN blogs. Ladies...

Yes it seems we're currently enjoying the age of people, including me, copying the list format of various popular websites *cough* cracked *cough* and putting them in blogs in the hope of getting on IGN's front page. And it works, so go do it, I guess.

2. Sony and not giving me Monster Hunter

It's not really funny anymore. I bought a PS Vita AT LAUNCH assuming a Monster Hunter would be released on it within the year, as it's one of my favorite gaming franchises of all time and was very popular on psp.

Up there with Persona and Lego® Racers.

It's now been like a year and a half (close enough) and have I seen a Vita version of Monster Hunter? Have I bollocks. Sony are all like "aren't we the best! We gave you borderlands 2 on Vita!" Well woo-dee-frickin'-who! Does Borderlands 2 have adorable pigs in pajamas, cats which cook your food, monster hunting? No. No it doesn't. And before you say it no, the psp freedom series played on Vita doesn't count, because if I play those on my vita it makes me sad that the graphics aren't better.

Who at Capcom thought "Here's a bloody great idea! Let's not take the psp version of the kickassery that is monster hunter, give it bitchin' graphics and make the best vita game ever, let's in fact lower the graphics and put the whole bloody thing on Nintendo 3DS! You know, the one with controls less convenient for the series and a screen that hurts your eyes!" God Dammit! Why!!!??? In fact, Capcom seem to have opted out of the current generation entirely (with the exception of Frontier, a Japan-only Xbox MMO with graphics that look like the PS2), so unless they release what can only be described as the GREATEST GAME EVER on PS4, with VITA CROSS-PLAY I will personally go over to their offices and give them what-for. Grrr.

3. Persona 3 woes

Finally, I've had a small (minor!) obsession with Persona 4 Golden recently, and after hearing about its merits also want to give Persona 3 a try. Unfortunately Persona 3 comes in two conflicting "best" versions: FES and Portable. FES is a PS2 game with anime cutscenes and an extended ending (which I hear ruins it), whereas portable is a psp game with improved features from P4 and the ability to play as a girl (sheeeeet). I would go for Portable as I can download and play it on my Vita, but it doesn't have the cutscenes or free-roaming of FES, instead being shown as a graphic novel. I made up my mind to get portable as the movement restrictions don't bother me much and the cutscenes are on youtube, but obviously the price has been raised from a respectable £12 to a ridiculous £23 on the PS store. Of course it has.